Hundreds turn out for funeral of Linda Norgrove the kidnapped British aid worker killed in Afghanistan

Hundreds of mourners turned out for the funeral of the British aid worker killed in Afghanistan during a failed rescue attempt by US special forces.

Linda Norgrove, who died as the military tried to free her from her kidnappers last month, was buried following a humanist ceremony today.

Former United Nations employee Ms Norgrove, 36, who was kidnapped by militants following an ambush, died in an explosion.

Final respects: The coffin of aid worker Linda Norgrove is carried from the Uig Community Centre on Lewis by mourners after her funeral service

Her grieving parents John and Lorna led the mourners at Uig Community Centre on Lewis in the Western Isles, Scotland today.

The ceremony was followed by a traditional Lewis funeral procession and a private interment at Ardroil cemetery.

Penelope Hamilton, who conducted the service, told the gathered friends, family and colleagues: 'It is abundantly clear that Linda made the best
use of her life and therefore endowed it with the highest value.

'But it's hard to accept death when it comes to someone close to us,
and even harder when it comes so suddenly to someone young who had so
much more to offer and in terrible circumstances, as it has to Linda.

United in grief: Hundreds of mourners turned out for the funeral of Linda Norgrove today

Goodbye: Father John Norgrove (centre) joins the procession carrying the coffin of his daughter Linda, killed in Afghanistan

'

We're in shock, numb, with so many things left undone and unsaid,
with questions which haven't or can't be answered, and a mixture of
powerful emotions.'

She went on: 'Linda's family will enjoy talking about her, even if it's sometimes upsetting.

'She'll always be in their thoughts in any case and she'll always remain an important part of their lives.'

Goodbye: Mourners gather round the grave of Linda Norgrove who died in a rescue attempt

Tragic Linda was kidnapped in the Dewagal valley in Kunar province on September 26.

Three local staff taken with her were released unharmed but Ms
Norgrove, from the Isle of Lewis, was killed during the rescue mission
on October 8.

She was initially said to have died at the hands of her captors but
it later emerged a grenade thrown by one of those sent to free her may
be to blame. A US military investigation is under way.

She died of penetrating fragment injuries to her chest, an inquest heard at its opening in Salisbury, Wiltshire, last Friday.

Jonathan Greenham, who worked with Ms Norgrove in Afghanuistan, said
she would have been 'bemused, embarrassed and somewhat amused' by
recent reports painting her as 'mixture of Joan of Arc and Mother
Teresa'.

He said: 'She did her job to the best of her ability, quietly,
compassionately, competently and well, and went into danger to serve
her fellow humans better.'

Describing her death as a 'terrible waste of unrealised potential',
he told the funeral and celebration of her life: 'I do know that she
was doing what she was raised to do and what she wanted to do.

'Here, in this beautiful place where she grew roots and wings, I
have seen where she learned and inherited her quiet, unassuming
competence, her compassion, her empathy, her ambition and her ability.'

Ms Norgrove's coffin was taken out of the community centre to the sounds of John Lennon's Imagine.

The hundreds of mourners then walked with the coffin in silence for
several hundred yards, many of them taking turns to hold the coffin on
its way to the hearse - an old Hebridean tradition.

The ceremony was followed by a private burial.

The former United Nations employee was working for the firm Development Alternatives Inc.

Based in Jalalabad, Ms Norgrove supervised reconstruction programmes
funded by the US government in the eastern region of Afghanistan.

The Norgrove family have set up a charitable foundation, known as
the Linda Norgrove Foundation, which is aimed at continuing her work.

Money raised will go to fund women- and family-orientated schemes,
such as children's orphanages and scholarships for Afghan women to
attend university.

Ms Norgrove is also survived by her younger sister Sofie, who lives in south-west Scotland.

Grief: Mourners at the funeral of Ms Norgrove, 36, in Uig on the Isle of Lewis